


Wave a Magic Wand

by Star_less



Category: Iron Man (Comics), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Banter, Canon Divergent ig, Crushes, Family, Family Fluff, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Infantilism (if you squint), IronDad & SpideySon, Irondad, One-Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony and May tag team parenting Peter, spideyson, teased MJ/Peter, tony gives fatherly advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 15:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17025111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_less/pseuds/Star_less
Summary: ...and everything's okay.Peter has a bad day at school and this time it isn't May that comes to the rescue but Tony Stark (who else??!)On the way home, Peter needs some advice. Tony may not be the best person to ask, but Tony's all Peter has.~“Uhm.. Mr. Stark, you… you know you’re not driving in the direction of my house, right?” He whispered, giggling nervously at the elder man.Tony nodded casually. “Thought we’d make a little detour before home, sprout. How does Baskin Robbins sound?”





	Wave a Magic Wand

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a friend :-)
> 
> As ever: the infantilism tag is there because I tend to write Peter as being/acting slightly younger than he actually is, that's a personal preference and if you feel uncomfortable by it please go on by (although these fics aren't infantilism heavy)
> 
> Enjoy!

13:09. May Parker was stood in the office bathrooms leaned over the basin to get a better look into the mirror, her lips slightly parted to slick on another layer of glittery gloss when her phone vibrated noisily next to her and threw off her fluid motion.   
She tutted at her reflection (now adorned with a glittery stripe of gloss swooping up her right cheek) but glanced at the suddenly lit screen with a look of annoyance…

**Petey Pie**   
_Aunt May…? Can u come n pick me up..? Bad bad day :-(_

Dabbing the smear with a sigh, May shifted thoughtfully. She had been getting more and more texts like these from Peter over these past few weeks. He was not sick, he was not a total dissolved mess, he was just… not quite himself. But neither would Peter open up. The most she had gleaned of the situation (from loitering outside of his bedroom, lunch in hand, eavesdropping on the stressed conversations Peter was having with his best friend, Ned, over Skype) was that Peter’s troubles were girl related and he didn’t quite feel as though May understood, even if she was a girl. 

**May**   
_Petey, we talked about this. It’s just two more hours, baby. You can do it. Pick you up later xx_

(Their agreement was that Peter was not allowed to go home unless he had a message from the nurse.)

Slowly, May went back to applying her gloss. Every now and then she would glance at the phone. Hesitating. Thoughtful. Sighing, she slung her lipgloss into her purse and picked up her phone once more. 

There was… one thing she could do.  
~

With the school bell ringing noisily to signal end of day, Peter gripped his backpack straps and looked down at the ground, kicking pebbles with the toes of his sneakers as he walked out of the school gates. Man… today had… today had really sucked. May hadn’t picked him up like he’d asked and… and even if he knew she was right, he really wished she would have. He felt as though everywhere he looked people were laughing at him. Ned had fallen sick and been sent home just before lunch, so he had had two hellish hours alone with just his tormentor, Flash Thompson, for company jeering in his ears too. He just… just wanted nothing more than a cuddle from May and to curl up in bed with a hot mug of milk and honey and Harry Potter on the television before he had a bubblebath and did his homework for the evening. That was what Peter’s routine was when he was a very little boy, tired out from a day at kindergarten and his first few months of grade school. And lately… as the demands from school had mounted, Peter found himself longing for that again and again. He had never said anything, kept tight lipped about it, at most wrapping himself up in a big fleecy blanket as he worked through a page of physics equations.   
Pulling himself out of his own head as cars crunched past the gravel of the school grounds, Peter looked around for May who had promised to pick him up today. ‘Picking him up’, meant, considering they didn’t have a car, a shared bus ride or even a walk home together. Perhaps Peter was much too grown up for his aunt to walk him home now, but he was longing for the comfort today of all days.   
But… but she wasn’t here. Oh. Even May didn’t want to see him today. That just made what was an already lousy day even shittier. Peter sniffled lightly as he drooped, turning on his heel to head in the direction of the bus stop, battling the babyish tears that welled in his eyes. He couldn’t cry just because his Aunt wasn’t here— what was he, four?!  
It just… he just…   
Peter snivelled to himself.   
“Peter!” called a familiar voice, attempting to cut through to the daydreaming teen. Peter didn’t tune into it for a moment, hunching over as if he was going to be yelled at and walked slightly faster. The voice followed him, as if it too was creeping toward the bus stop with the teen. “Peter!”

Peter finally looked up. There, stepping out of his sleek black car and opening the passenger side for Peter, was a Mr. Tony Stark.

“Tony!” Peter sputtered in disbelief, eyes star-filled and gleaming brightly as he skittered over to the man. He… they… he hadn’t seen Tony in forever, he’d almost thought Tony had forgotten all about him, thought that Tony had decided not to allow him into the Avengers initiative after all. “S- sorry, I mean, Mr. Stark… I- I didn’t realise you were passing by this way.”  
He was blushing faintly. Now, rather than laughs and jeers, it felt as though everybody was gasping and giggling in shock at the fact that Tony Stark was outside their school and he was here to pick up Peter Parker of all people. 

Tony shrugged, smiling comfortingly at the skittish teen. “Hop in. Thought I’d drop you at home since I’m driving by that way on an errand.” He explained, awkwardly patting Peter on the shoulder rather than giving him a hug; Peter melted under his touch all the same, making Stark feel as though he was doing something right. When Peter didn’t move, Tony urged him on, palm flat on the small of Peter’s back. “Come on, sprout. Things to do.”   
Peter chuckled, nerves and excitement and utter disbelief tangled into one as he dipped into the passenger side of the car. Tony slipped in at the driver’s side and revved the engine, screaming away from the school and the hordes of squeaking children as Peter clicked his seatbelt.   
~

Peter watched the trees blur into one as Tony sped through the neighbourhood, smiling to himself in disbelief at it all. He had been wanting May to pick hm up… but Tony Stark? This… this was even better! The teenager picked nervously at his seatbelt, shifting in the leather seat. “T- thank you for picking me up, Mr. Stark.” He whispered, his voice feather-light and soft. “You… you didn’t have to.”

Tony shrugged casually, deciding not to mention that May had been informing him that Peter needed a bit of a pick me up. “Don’t mention it, kiddo.” He chuckled softly, running his free hand through Peter’s curls. 

Peter beamed to himself, his belly filled with big, flapping butterflies at the silly nicknames and the noogie — hey, it was close enough to a hug, right? - as he sunk in his chair, blissed out. He blinked sleepily, watching the trees once more. “Uhm.. Mr. Stark, you… you know you’re not driving in the direction of my house, right?” He whispered, giggling nervously at the elder man.  
Tony nodded casually. “Thought we’d make a little detour before home, sprout. How does Baskin Robbins sound?”

The grin on Peter’s face, so wide it near enough split his face in two, said it all.   
~

“Can I grab a butter pecan two scoop, extra chopped nuts and chocolate sauce and two scoops of chocolate fudge brownie.. rainbow sprinkles, extra chocolate sauce, teddybear wafer on top, please?” asked Tony with an entirely straight face. 

“Of course, sir. Would your son like the complimentary children’s pack?” Responded the cashier, gesturing to a colouring pack with a set of extra crayons while glancing up at Peter who was sitting and swinging his legs at a nearby table.   
“Oh, he’s not… he’s..” Tony murmured softly before trailing off, studying the children’s pack. Peter was likely a little too old for such things right now but, hey, what did Tony know about kids? “…sure, throw that on top, it’s fine.” he grinned; but his grin was easily outshone by the grin Peter gave him upon seeing him return to the table under a mountain of colouring supplies and rainbow-covered ice-cream.   
~

“Mr. Stark, I’m too old for colouring.” Peter blushed, digging his spoon into his ice-cream and raising the melting mound to his lips. 

“Uh huh, who said this was for you?” Tony murmured distractedly; scribbling on the thin paper with a red crayon with the one hand, feeding himself his own ice-cream with the other. “Look,” he grinned like a naughty child, showing Peter a hideously caricatured cartoon doodle of everyone’s favourite paragon of virtue, Captain America. Peter collapsed into furtive giggles at once, as though Steve was going to jump up from under the table and start scolding them both. “Mr. Stark, that’s mean!” He whispered, shaking his head and scribbling out the doodle while at the same time lifting the colouring page so he could get a closer look. Before long, he was scribbling away intently, tongue just gently poking out of his mouth with concentration. Every now and then he would try to feed himself without lifting his eyes up from the page. This only seemed to result in him missing his mouth, but he was too distracted to really worry about it. Tony watched him in between mouthfuls of his own ice-cream, fondness in his eyes. “You tryna pull off the signature Stark look, kid?” He asked with a chuckle at the mess of Peter’s face. 

“Hm?” Peter asked, confused, torn away from his doodles. Chuckling, Tony snapped a picture of the boy on his iPhone, urging him to, ‘smile, kiddo!’. The picture showed Peter’s mouth and chin absolutely slathered in chocolate ice-cream, looking rather like a cheap imitation of Stark’s goatee (if you squinted a bit and knocked back six consecutive whiskeys, that is.)

Peter blushed, scrambling to wipe it all up. “Sorry, Mr. Stark.” He stammered with embarrassment, cheeks reddening in shame. Stark’s casual shrug and, “hey, you were enjoying it, that’s all,” in return was just enough to stop Peter from beating himself up over it. Slightly shaky, Peter went back to his doodles. Tony let the comfortable silence gather between the two, watching Peter scribble and eat, eat and scribble as he himself did. “So. Aunt May said you had a bad day today.” He said conversationally. Stark still felt slightly awkward talking of such things… emotions… his father had hated him being so open about his emotions as a child and he had learned very early to bottle everything up, so… so getting this particular task from May was… particularly vexing. But he knew that Peter opened up best when he was distracted and relaxed like this, so… he had to seize the moment.

“Yea’.” 

Peter sighed, his mood quickly deflating. 

“What happened, mm? Detention?”

Peter shook his head, trying to find his words and tossing so many around his mouth that they seemed to sour on his tongue. “No. A… a girl. Mr. Stark, you— you go out with lots of girls, right?” Peter burst urgently, leaning forward. 

Tony made a noise that might have been a sharp inhale, a laugh, a sigh, or an amalgamation of all three. “Uh, yeah… yeah, before I settled. I was a bit older than you, though, sprout.” _A bit older than you and surviving solely on the roughest vodka he could get his grubby little hands on which, admittedly, gave you the murkiest of judgments as it did hangovers…_

“How… how did they… like you?” Peter fumbled. Mr. Stark was… cool, and handsome, and he always seemed to have a trail of squealing girls at his beck and call. Peter couldn’t ever imagine himself being as popular as Mr. Stark.

Tony laughed softly. “That’s the Stark magic for ya, kiddo.” He teased with a wink. Peter whined in response, and, suspecting he knew the direction in which this conversation was going, Tony shook his head. “Nah. Just gotta… be yourself, kid.” He shrugged. “She’ll like you for who you are.”“What if, ‘who I am’ is a clumsy dork?!” Peter wailed dramatically, putting his head in his hands. 

Tony raised a brow. “What’s going on, kiddo?”

“At lunch today, I saw the girl I like…” Peter explained, squirming in embarrassment as uncomfortable butterflies began to flap sourly in his tummy, desperate for Tony not to laugh at him too— God, what if Tony laughed too?! Laughed and kicked him off the Avengers initiative?! “‘nd I was watching her instead of looking where I was going… and I tripped over and fell into her!” Peter explained with a mortified whimper, his cheeks burning scarlet. “I ruined her new shirt, and everybody laughed at me… and Flash, he teased me all afternoon.”

Tony nodded, having to sneakily hoof in a few decent mouthfuls of ice-cream while Peter was lost in his chatter in a desperate attempt to keep himself from laughing out loud, not wanting to hurt the boy’s feelings. “Oh, Peter,” he said, laughs sneaking their way in around the edges of his voice despite him trying desperately to keep them back. “That’s nothing. Really, loads of girls have caught me in such, much more embarrassing positions… ‘specially Pepper.” he said, deciding not to elaborate on that as Peter wasn’t quite old enough to hear those pearls of wisdom… “and look at me. Still got it. Just gotta get some courage in ya… apologise… If she likes you that much, Pete, she’ll accept your apology and move on.” He nodded, painfully aware that he was being the world’s largest walking cliche there was…. But Peter was beginning to relax again, beginning to eat and to scribble, so Tony felt as though he must have been saying something vaguely comforting. As he watched the boy become engrossed in his colouring (now that the ice creams had been eaten) he quirked a brow… finally getting a glance at Peter’s scribbles. 

“MJ? That the girl?”

Peter’s eyes widened as he hunched even further over his colouring and squeezed his crayon tighter in his hand. “Hm?” He squeaked, flooding scarlet at just hearing her name fall from Stark’s mouth. “I- I don’t know.. what you mean?”  
 _How.. how did Tony know her name?_  
“MJ,” Tony elaborated, nodding towards the doodles that Peter had been creating - lots of little stick figures - himself, Peter, Iron Man yes— but doodles of a girl and hearts with ‘MJ’ inside them. “Michael Jackson fan, huh?”

Tony’s eyes twinkled teasingly. Peter met his gaze then crumpled and laughed, embarrassed, quickly scrunching up the paper and putting it into his pocket. “No… I- I mean, Michael Jackson is awesome, but… I- I mean…” he stammered, watching Tony laugh at him. 

The billionaire pushed back his chair. Peter did too, laughing softly in defeat. “Yeah.” He whispered, feeling embarrassingly gooey. 

“Oh? Awesome.” Tony nodded, ruffling Peter’s hair and grinning boyishly as kiddo lit up. “You need to invite her over sometime, champ. I’d love to meet her.”Peter nodded earnestly, amazed that he’d even been given such an offer. Bringing MJ to Stark Tower would give him the ultimate brownie points. 

“…and I’d love to show her this photo…” Tony teased, waving his phone in Peter’s face; his phone which had taken that photo of Peter with ice-cream dripping down his chin… his phone which now had that very photo as it’s background wallpaper. 

Peter’s face darkened in horror. “Mr. Stark, you wouldn’t dare!” He cried, jumping and flailing as Tony held the phone more and more out of his grasp as they exited the icecream store, Peter laughing all the while. “If, if you do that, I’m showing Steve the drawing you made!”

“You play a mean game, Parker.” Stark faux-gasped, chuckling to himself. The two bickered amongst themselves the entirety of the journey home. In all honesty, Stark would never want to humiliate Peter in such a way, but hey… threatening it had meant that Peter returned to May with a belly full of ice-cream and a heart full of love and neither May nor Stark would want it to be any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and kudos me if you enjoyed this fic. 
> 
> It is one of my favourites. :-)
> 
> (Also.. I really want some ice-cream now..)


End file.
